Summer 2014 Episode Rankings – Week 6

If my rankings won’t change from week to week on their own, I’ll force them to do so! I’ll admit, that thought was one of the main factors that led to me dropping TWO series from my weekly schedule, but neither Rokujyoma no Shinryakusha!? or Persona 4 The Golden Animation were doing much for me, I was basically forcing myself to watch them in the end.

Replacing them will be Nobunaga Concerto and Sabagebu! – more on them below. 🙂

Who knew that Oda Nobunaga was the one who gave Tokugawa Ieyasu his first adult magazine!? And people say anime isn’t educational…

Newly added:

Firstly, Nobunaga Concerto. All I’d really heard about this was negative comments about the animation. That, combined with the fact that there are so many Nobunaga shows out there already, didn’t fill me with confidence… but the first episode immediately won me over. Never mind that we don’t know anything about Saburo’s background, or why falling off his school fence sent him back to the Sengoku era – he doesn’t seem to care. 😛 Watching him take on the role of Nobunaga and try not to change history, aided only by a history textbook with vague details and dates, has provided comedy and drama in equal measure, not to mention his followers’ reactions to his strange future items and modern words! And I actually find myself liking the animation – the backgrounds in particular are gorgeous, and the character designs are varied and interesting. It looks a bit weird when there’s a lot of movement at once, but thankfully the battles themselves don’t seem to be the series’ focus.

Sabagebu! was even more of a surprise, since the first episode just left me feeling that I’d seen funnier comedies before, and that the moe/military combo was starting to get as tired as Nobunaga. 😛 But I gave the second ep a chance, and slowly began to appreciate its style of humour, and by the third episode I was hooked. It was at that point that I realised something about the characters that hadn’t really sunk in before – they’re all jerks. The cast includes a sadist, a masochist, an invincible and impossibly wealthy 18 year-old schoolgirl, a cosplay otaku, and a gravure idol (who rather than being a constant source of fanservice, is actually the butt of jokes for having so little presence in the club). They’re not beyond betraying each other, stealing from each other or shooting each other to (imaginary) death. If one of them is in trouble, the others point and laugh. But that makes their antics very fun to watch. 😀 I love the narrator too, always pointing out the series’ flaws, and reminding us it’s a work of fiction!

It also raises some deep, philosophical questions.

Moving up:

Back to the regular old shows… and wow, a lot of characters got killed off this week. Always a good way to climb up my rankings, if done well! Akame ga Kill!‘s casualty was Sheele, who just last week I was criticising for having a boring backstory – guess there’s not much point building up a character if you’re going to knock them down in the next episode! Noto Mamiko’s voice will be missed, however. 😛 The jump in rankings came more as a result of another character, the ‘villain’ responsible for Sheele’s death, the oddly named Seryu Ubiquitous. Her change in personality from the kind person who showed Tatsumi around last week was quite a shock, but then again Night Raid DID kill her mentor, in addition to generally going against her strong sense of justice. Continuing to fight even after having her arms hacked off, thanks to ‘body modifications’ such as guns concealed in her arms and mouth, I’m hoping we’ll get to see more of her later. 😀

Re:␣Hamatora‘s cast aren’t having a good time at the moment. Last week detective Gasuke was killed by his former partner Art, and while he was not a major character, it was still a shock to see him go. Meanwhile, all the Minimum Holders are suffering from increasingly strong side effects relating to their powers. As for our main cast, Murasaki still feels inferior to Nice, gets into an argument with him, and even offers to join Art when approached… or so it seemed at first. Turns out Murasaki was just using him to find Freemum’s new hideout… but the plan backfires, with them using him instead. Murasaki ends up killing Art, only for him to pull his resurrection trick, all of which was filmed and broadcast live for the rest of the world to see… and suddenly, Art is messiah to all Minimum holders, and Murasaki is dead. Exactly how the latter happened, we don’t know – could be murder, or simply overuse of his Minimum. Either way, all comedy seems to have vanished from the Hamatora world. 😮

If that’s justice then I’m a banana!

Moving down:

Haikyuu!! is moving down again, mostly because it didn’t kill off any of its characters. Wait, actually, that’s a good thing. Please don’t kill any of these wonderful characters! 😮 The drop in rankings is actually the usual combination of exciting things happening in other series, coupled with not a lot happening in Haikyuu!! itself, as Karasuno spent most of the episode reflecting on their previous match and preparing for their next one against Aoba Johsai. What little we did get to see of the start of this match promised good things to come in the next episode however! Karasuno have beaten this team before in a practice match, but both sides are playing very differently now, and with far more at stake. 😀

Gekkan Shoujo Nozaki-kun only really dropped one place compared to last week, the other two being the result of Nobunaga Concerto and Sabagebu! debuting above it. I do fear it might spend more time in the bottom 5 now that I’ve gotten rid of the only two genuinely bad shows though, and Sabagebu! has a very similar feel and format to it, so I expect they’ll remain in close competition. As for the episode itself, the introduction of new character Wakamatsu resulted in a confusing exchange between him and Seo – he wanted to tell her to leave him alone, but it ended up looking more like a love confession, though she interpreted it differently still (who knows what’s going through her head 😛 ). Chiyo, Wakamatsu and Hori’s screentone choices in the later segment were also amusing. 🙂

If nothing else, most of Haikyuu!!’s cast are capable of murderous glares. 😛 Hinata, not so much.

My next post will be delayed, as I’m away and without internet next weekend, so will have a fair bit of catching up to do anime-wise – a shame, since I’ve managed to post on time every Sunday for the past season and a half, which may be a personal best. Still, at least this is a break of my own choosing. 😛

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